After learning about rocks and the earth, going into fossils tied in very well. A basic explanation of a fossil is a trace of an organism that once lived and it is preserved in the earths crust, for example a skeleton, or an imprint (footprint). The oldest fossils are closest to the earths core, while the youngest fossils are farthest from the earths core. We also did a project, this helped me a lot because I felt like i wasnt just sitting there reading a book, I got to feel like a scientist and analyse fossils just like they do. We got a bunch of bones to make a skeleton, and we had to shape and place the bones to make the organism that we thought it might be. We came up with a dinosoar creature. Our guess was a bit close, with the fact that the organism DID live in the dinosoar period, but it was a flying organsim, not walking on four legs like we infered. This unit also made us learn about how hard the work of a paleontologist is, because dating rock layers is frustrating because for example, there could be gaps in the fossil index.
The skeleton of the organism we were trying to construct, the scaphognathus crassirostis
The skeleton of the organism we were trying to construct, the scaphognathus crassirostis